A Frozen Kurse
Chapter 2:
A Xihk 0ei (And it Feels so Good)
Ich tu' dir weh.
Tut mir nicht Leid!
Es tut dir gut.
Hör wie es schreit!
Du bist das Schiff, ich der Kapitän
Wohin soll denn die Reise geh'n?
Ich seh' im Spiegel dein Gesicht
Du liebst mich denn ich lieb' dich nicht
Rammstein: Ich Tu Dir Weh
He could see nothing. It was dark. It was not here. It was not there. Where was he? Fox couldn't tell if he was dead or not. Was it possible that this was the afterlife that he was destined for? It seemed unbearable. He would be here for an eternity seeing nothing but the smothering dark, hearing nothing, not even his own voice, and feeling nothing. He would remain here forever. Then he felt a sharp yank on his neck. Instinctively he reached for his neck only to remember that he didn't have a neck to reach for. Wait, that couldn't be right. How could he feel pain in his neck if he didn't have one? He tried to lift his arms to feel a tight pressure against his wrists. He tested his legs and felt a similar result. If he could feel these things, then he knew he wasn't dead. His thoughts were confirmed when he felt a tearing sensation across his face and his eyes were freed of a bandage covering them. The dim lighting in the cramped space was still enough to make his head spin.
As he slowly adjusted his vision to the scene before him, he took in details of his surroundings. He seemed to be in a metal prison cell. There were no windows. The room was bathed in a soft purple light, making it seem almost alien. He could tell he was on board a ship. The engines let off a familiar hum as he sat there in otherwise silent contemplation. He remembered the sting in his neck, and that he had tried to move to feel it. He looked down at himself to see that he was tied tightly to a chair. He took a deep breath.
"Might as well wait for whoever got me here." he sighed.
"My, my, you're a smart one." He heard a voice behind him. It sounded cold and pained, like it had once been used to laugh, but now rarely saw an opportunity to perform that function. It sounded almost…familiar. "Most would have attempted to escape and worn themselves out. You seem to understand the idea of conserving energy." Fox attempted to look around him for the source of the voice, but whoever was there was standing behind him out of his field of vision. His head couldn't turn that far. "You're probably feeling a little too much pain in that neck of yours from where I yanked out the dart from earlier to be able to turn and see me. Don't worry; I'm sure we'll get well enough acquainted."
"So I don't even get to meet my host? How rude. I had hoped for a little hospitality for a guest." Fox decided that it would probably be best to play this game his captor seemed to be going with. If they wanted to feign conversational interest, then he would too. "A name would be nice at the very least."
"The same could be asked of you." responded the voice. "I will make a deal with you however. Give me your name, and I promise that I will give you mine." Fox thought for a moment. Giving his real name seemed unhelpful. It would be safer to go by a pseudonym.
"I'm called Illicit." He had liked the name anyways. It fit him. The voice, however, seemed disappointed.
"A shame that I cannot trust you Mr. Illicit. I'll call you by that if you are so sure you don't want to give me your real name, but I can tell when you are lying." He could imagine a figure shaking its head in disapproval. He wasn't expecting that to be caught so easily.
"You're really good at that, kinda like someone else I know…" he muttered.
"Of course I am. Anyways, I am still willing to tell you my name despite your attempt at trickery. You may call me Kursed." Fox immediately sat up straight in his bonds. His ears perked up and his eyes widened. If he was caught by her, then he didn't have a very good chance of escaping. Kursed was known throughout the system as a bounty hunter with no equal. She had a reputation for "playing with her food before she ate it" as well. Still, he was alive for the moment, so he could take that as a sign that he wasn't going to be killed, or a sign that he was being kept for torture. Either way, it meant that he at least had a little time to try and get out. He decided to play it safe and continue the charade of manners.
"I was unaware that I was in the possession of one so well known. Forgive me, but I think I must continue to go by that moniker. You of all people can understand the need to not use a real name. After all, Kursed isn't what your parents named you I'm guessing. And don't try to deny that. Even the cold blooded Kursed had parents. Everything does." He knew he'd hit a nerve their. No one liked having their parents brought into a conversation. As he sat there, he felt a slight prick in the side of his neck. The blue furred vixen he had seen earlier before he had been tranqued stepped in front of him holding a knife to his neck. Her purple bangs only partially covered the cold orbs that glared into his soul. They shared the same quality as her voice. They looked as though they had lost something long ago that had made them sparkle. Now they shined with an intensity that would crack stone.
"Believe me when I say Mr. Illicit, that if you know who I am, then you know that it is unwise to make light of such a delicate subject." Fox only laughed at her threat.
"Kursed, since it is obvious I know who you are, I also know about your 'preferred methods'. If I'm going to die at your hands, I know it won't be pleasant. I sincerely doubt that it would be any less painful because I'm able to find humor in my situation."
"Ah, but this would really only apply if I was going to kill you. My job is to bring you to a drop off point, wait there, and deliver you to my employer. He did mention a hope that you would be undamaged when I hand you over, but if you give me too much trouble, I might decide that your pain is worth more than the extra money would be." She let the knife fall away from his throat. She stepped behind him again, out of his sight. Not being able to see her made Fox nervous. He felt that it was probably never a good idea to have his back to her.
"Mr. Illicit, I'm going to ask you one more question before I go back to the bridge of my ship." He felt her breath on the back of his neck as she slowly spoke into his ear. There was something disturbing about her tone now. She sounded happy.
"Are you afraid of me?"
"Well," began the orange vulpine. "I wouldn't exactly say that this is the most comfortable of situations. But I wouldn't say I have a whole lot left to be afraid of, so no." He could almost feel her smile.
"Wrong answer."
A sharp prick jerked Fox's attention to his right arm to see a syringe filled with an orange solution being drained into his veins.
"Beautiful isn't it? I designed this myself." Fox tried to respond but found himself unable to move his jaw or tongue. "Don't bother trying to move, love. The first part is a paralytic. You won't be moving for a little while now. But that's the boring part. You'll love what the next few parts do. There is a fair amount of pain inducing neurotoxin in my little creation. For the next three hours you will feel what it's like to be eaten alive from the inside. One of the most interesting facts about this mixture is that it can only leave the system through excessive vomiting, so you'll need to be cleaned later. I won't have some vomit covered vermin in my ship. Of course, that will make you hungry, but I'm afraid I need food more than you do. I am very sorry, but it looks like you are about to have a rough night.' Though she said it, Fox could detect no sympathy in her voice. He had no choice but to brace himself for the oncoming pain. "Sweet dreams love, if you fall asleep of course. It has a stimulant in it as well that should keep you from falling unconscious." With one last cackle, Kursed opened the door to the cell and left. Immediately the lights shut off, leaving the vulpine with no light. In the darkness, he usually felt safe. He could slip through the night undetected in the darkness. Or he could sleep in the comfort of a bed with darkness. This was different though. Fox McCloud rarely ever felt fear anymore, but this room had achieved that thing that countless of soldiers, monsters, and tyrants had tried and failed to do. He was afraid. What kind of creature was this that could bring him so low?
Suddenly, Fox felt a slight pinch in his chest. It wasn't excruciating, but he noticed it. Then it began to build. It spread across his body like a dark plant reaching its roots into every source of water it could. Every bit of his body was tingling in this unpleasant manner. It didn't really hurt yet, but he knew what would happen next. Kursed's injection didn't disappoint him either.
The pinching feeling throughout his body slowly grew. It became a needling sensation, then it felt like razors were sliding across the underside of his skin. With every step up of pain, Fox gasped. How could he take three hours of this? Then he felt something Kursed did not explain. He had been paralyzed with his eyes open. He could not shut them. The air began to dry them and slowly his vision clouded as tears raced out of their ducts in an attempt to moisten his eyes.
Finally the pain inside him reached a peak of burning. He could not move his jaw, but he still screamed though clenched teeth. He screamed and screamed and screamed, but he knew that there was only one other person who would hear him, and she was enjoying every exquisite moment of the tortured sounds he made. The seconds ticked away slowly, and he could feel his throat being torn by the force of his wails. He didn't care though. He couldn't care. His whole being was focused on the feeling of his eyes shriveling in their sockets, the inferno that raged within his body, and the next two and a half hours that awaited him. There was no room for emotion, for thought, even for hope. He was going to die from this. There was no way he could survive agony of this caliber. Maybe if he died it would be better anyways. He wouldn't feel this pain anymore, and Kursed wouldn't get her pay. He wouldn't try to fight it if he felt death slip over him. He just wanted the pain to end.
Unfortunately, he wasn't to get any relief. Kursed had been true to her word. The injection she had synthesized worked. The stimulant kept him wide awake for the whole process. He would get no reprieve from unconsciousness, and the dose wasn't lethal. He could only sit in his chair and endure the torture.
Then, as quickly as the pain came, it receded. Fox found that he was still unable to move, but at least the burning had gone away. He was thankful to whatever deity had spared him further torment. What he didn't realize was that he was thanking Kursed, and she deserved no thanks for what she had actually done. As Fox finally began to calm down, the burning came back in full force. It took him off guard and hurt all the more for it. Had he been prepared for the pain, he might have been able to withstand it, but this was too much. It seemed that Kursed had designed the pain to come in waves to make its victim expect it at all times from then on. Fox's screams continued.
Another three waves left the prisoner exhausted. He could not think straight. The pain was gone, but he still feared it. It could come again. At any moment he expected to be wracked with the fire the serum had caused. The paralysis was beginning to wear off. His head now rested against his chest. He was too worn to look up. At least his eyes had closed. He doubted he would be able to see correctly for the next two days or so. Then he remembered what Kursed had said. The fluid would only leave his body through excessive vomiting. He groaned a little as he readied himself for the next half hour to come. If the paralysis was wearing off, then he didn't have much time left to wait.
His guess had been right. He at least was able to turn his head to the side to avoid covering himself in his own bile. He felt his stomach convulse and then a large amount of bloody chyme spattered the floor. He didn't have time to be repulsed by the abstract painting he had made on the floor however, as another bout made him wretch his previous meal and a fair amount of blood onto the floor again. He heaved again, but now there was nothing left to come up. He was reduced to dry heaving for another twenty minutes. The consistency of his vomiting left little time to breath. As a result he became light headed, and his skull throbbed until he thought it might burst. The pain from his convulsions made his eyes water again.
Finally, the wretching stopped. The serum had worked its way out of Fox. He sat there, bound to his chair, quivering from the memory of the past four hours. How many animals had Kursed tested that serum on to get the effects just right? She had to have tested this on several dozen at the very least. Fox thought about the other poor creatures that had spent their time in this room. The idea made him heave again, but still nothing came out.
The door slid open again, and the purple lights activated again. He could feel the sadistic pleasure radiating from Kursed as she took in the sight before her. There was blood and vomit all over the floor next to him. His eyes were tightly shut. The chair was actually rocking on the floor from his violent shaking. His fur was matted with sweat. She could tell she had done her job.
"Well now dear, did we have fun? I must say you screamed much louder then most of my other tests ever did. That means the serum finally works the way it should." She laughed as the vulpine in front of her only let out a pathetic whimper in response. "So did we learn anything?" she asked kindly, almost like a teacher who had just beaten her student would. "Let's see if you've figured out how this works." She walked behind him again. Her lips were just a hairsbreadth away from his ears again. She breathed out quietly as she spoke.
"Are you afraid of me?"
Fox nodded vigorously, not wanting the torture to begin again. He squeezed his eyes even tighter and tried to control his panicked breathing.
"Good. Now was that so hard? Now look, Mr. Illicit. We've reached the drop off point, but my employer says he may be a little late. We're going to get off this ship now. I trust you won't try anything stupid, so I'm going to cut your bonds. It would make it easier since I wouldn't be carrying you. But remember, if you make any sort of aggressive movement, or piss me off just a little too much, I have plenty of that serum left. I can even increase the dosage and double the time you spend in agony here in the dark. So do we have a deal?" She waited for a moment before Fox opened his mouth. His teeth were covered in the blood he had thrown up.
"Alright." he rasped. Kursed's face came into view again as she moved in front of him. She extended her claws and cut neatly down the side of the chair her captive was tied to, taking care not to cut him. The ropes fell away and Fox shakily stood up before falling forward. Kursed caught him before he could hit the ground.
"Splendid. I know you might have some trouble trying to walk right now, but that should wear off in a few moments. Now I'll get something warm for you to put on. It's rather cold where we are."
A/N: Here's the next chapter. I like it, personally. I hope you guys do to.
Anyways, I'm packing my computer tomorrow, so this is going to be my last update for awhile in all likelihood. Sorry. :..(..
-800M23